Export from DeltaV 7.4.1 to ODBC (MS Access)

Hello to all,

I´m using an old DeltaV Client V7.4.1 on a Windows Server 2003 (Standard Edition) system and I want to export the project data to MS Access, because of writing a tool later to analyse the data. I actually exported data to an .fhx file with and opened it with MS Excel or Editor, but I need the Data in MS Access, otherwise I would have to write another tool to transfer the data to Access.

I saw that there should be a possibility to export data to ODBC. I have created an access-database and linked it with a dsn-file in the control panel/Administrative Tools. Then I tried to export with DeltaV Explorer/File/Export/user defined > ODBC, I selected my dsn file, but then I couldn´t select one of my databases in the dropbox, I can only select "MsysAccessObjects"(before I installed MS Office it was the same!). I think MsysAccessObjects is an access-system-database.

When I first worked with it there was no MS Office on the System, so I installed MS Office 2003 later. I have read that the later installation might make problems, maybe the Version is not compatible with DeltaV V7.4.1.

So you see I have a lot of questions:

Is there a possibility to export my data to MS Access?

Is the version of MS Access compatible with my DeltaV version or can I get the information anywhere in my System? Maybe I can get another version of MS Office if necessary.

We've exported directly to MSAccess 2003 from Win XP stations running DeltaV v9.3 / v10.3 / v11.3. We had to install ODBC drivers for MSAccess 2007 separately in order to export directly to it. Just wanted you to know it was possible.

I'm very interested in this because I've found a few instances where I thought this would be particularly helpful, although I have been warned pretty strongly to not install MS Access on DeltaV machines, especially those hosting other databases.

Does anyone out there have a perspective on what is recommended, what the potential implications could be, perhaps if there are databases that lend themselves to an ODBC connection better than others (the .fhx export was unexpected.)

Please, anyone that can add value to this conversation I ask and value your thoughts.

Thanks for your answers, but I don´t have the possibility to install MSOffice before DeltaV Client, maybe I could install MSACCESS Database ODBC driver manually, if someone here could tell me how.

I´ve already checked out how many categories DeltaV wants to write in my destination databse (.mdb) and created a table in the destination database(.mdp) with the same number of columns. It has only one blank line, cause Access deletes automatically all other lines when the table is empty. Maybe this is a problem, but I don´t know how to solve it, cause my Access knowledge is not the best.

You can export to text files (tab seperated) in the same manner and with the same data as you would export to ODBC (look at bulk edit in books online).

The text files can be then be imported into access. This adds an additional step but I have kept this step in my procedure as it keeps a record of the state of the control database. For you it means that you do not need to re-install deltav after installing MS Access.

I can also confirm from the couple of times I have tried it that DeltaV Version 7 will stop functioning after installation of MS Office.

BTW Access will not keep a record (or line) if it does not contain data.

Finally I found out another possibility. In the Emerson Application Exchange I found a tool which converts fhx-files to access. I couldn´t use it on my deltaV System, cause it needs Access2007 and Access2007 doesn´t run on a windows server 2003 system without servoce pack, but I could open it on an other system. When I first startet it, I got an error, cause there were a few small bugs in the code, but I could fix that and now I have my project data in MS Access 2003 (I saved it as .mdb).

2.) Use MS Access2007 to open it(it´s a normal .accdb-file), then it gets a bit difficult: The tool is VB based, so you have to find out where in the code bugs are. You can find the bugs in the code when you try to import a fhx-file and then start debugging when you are asked for it. I corrected the Code three times. The problem is that VB can´t find form_1, so I just wrote "forms!" in front of it.

3.) If you corrected the code correctly, you should be able to import an fhx-file now. Your Data is saved in the table "Tparam". You can now easily export the table into another existing access database with context menu / export. You can save it in an .accdb (Access2007 or newer) or .mdb (Access 2003 or older) database.

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